By Steve Brooks, Torche.

Talk Talk
Spirit of Eden
EMI
This is my all-time favorite record! I’d play it just because it’s mellow enough to be the background for excellent conversation.

Michael Brook & Pieter Nooten
Sleeps with the Fishes
Nesak
I think I’d pick almost anything from Michael Brook, but I love this one the most. Perfect for red wine and hors d’ oeuvres

Ray Lynch
Deep Breakfast
Windham Hill
This would be the soundtrack for FOOD COMA. 

Diamanda Galas
Plague Mass (1984 End of the Epidemic)
Mute
I’d throw this one on for shock value…just for a couple of minutes to wake everyone up after digesting with Ray Lynch.

Donovan
Donovan’s Greatest Hits
Epic/Legacy
Donovan is perfect dinner music. It might even get ya desert!

Um, OK. New Darkthrone song. They say: “These days we are cruising the shores of epic metal (Cirith Ungol, Manilla Road, English Dogs, Brocas Helm, Blessed Death, Omen, Iron Maiden, to mention some), and this, combined with the avalanche of credible punk we listen to, creates a certain special sound for DARKTHRONE - especially when considering our history of primitive BM.”

Then there’s this.

Birds of Prey are currently holed up at Sniper Studio in Moyock, NC to record their second LP Sulfur and Semen. In addition to the expected subject matter (”Overfucked and Underaged,” “Murder the Homeless/Burn the Upperclass”) there’s a song written by Sam Beam, who records acoustic folk under the name Iron and Wine. Other than the lethal applications of iron and the liver-destroying properties of wine, it didn’t add up. So we asked guitarist Erik Larson what the hell is going on:

“The short answer is that both Bo and I are big longtime fans of Iron and Wine, and we wanted to do a song that might expose Birds of Prey fans to a really great artist. The longer answer is this: Iron and Wine is the moniker that my longtime friend Sam Beam writes and performs music under. Sam and I went to college together. He and Bryan Cox (Alabama Thunderpussy drummer) were really tight back then and played in a band together. Sam is actually the reason Alabama Thunderpussy got it’s name; he was a film student and told Bryan about this character he saw in a obscure B porn movie, named the Alabama Thunderpussy. We even asked Sam to be in ATP originally, but he turned us down. Thank goodness he did, because now the world can enjoy his music. But I digress. Bo and I decided to do a song Sam wrote, so we chose a song from his first batch of demos, some of which he used to get signed to Sub Pop, and some have never been released to the public. We chose a song that, to my knowledge, has never been released called “Show Him the Ground”. I called Sam up and asked him for the lyrics and if he was cool with us doing it. He said of course, but had no idea what song I was talking about since it had been so long since he’d thought about those demos. I sent him an mp3 of the song and he sent me the lyrics, adding that he would never have found that song in his four track tapes from memory. Bo reworked the arrangement, we added some solos and double bass drumming, and I think we have a really great tribute to an incredible artist. I know Sam’s gonna chuckle when he hears it. I hope it brings some metal fans into Sam’s world if even for just a bit.”

Beaten Back to Pure
The Last Van Zant
Alabama Thunder Pussy | Avail
Baroness
Dave Witte

Think you’re a Misfits/Danzig completist, with your coffin-shaped boxed set and your Lost Tracks of Danzig and your Verotik Comics collection? Strap in for a three-hour audio interview with Glenn Danzig done by Brian Schroeder, best known as punk/metal artist Pushead, for a Thrasher Magazine feature. Since it’s three fucking hours long, the interview covers a lot of ground, from Glenn’s pre-Misfits history through Samhain and hints about a solo career. If that’s not enough, there’s always the expanded version of J. Bennett’s Danzig Q&A from the January 2007 issue of Decibel, and Glenn gettin’ all literary below.

Give it up for Ben Claassen III, the mastermind behind the weekly “Dirtfarm” strip currently syndicated in the Washington City Paper, Baltimore City Paper and Chicago Reader free weeklies.  Claassen, a not-so-closeted metal fan, previously did the design for the Hidden Hand/ Wooly Mammoth split CD on Meteor City and produces his own hideous/wonderful mini comics when time allows. One of his earliest efforts, a tiny goof-off called “The Metal Alphabet,” used to be available by sending him a buck via Paypal, but the order part of his website is currently being retooled. Luckily, a complete archive of three years of Dirtfarm strips is still available as an excellent time-waster; his tribute to June 6, 2006 (where the above image can be found) has a particularly special place in our hearts.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have lolmetal.

Here’s Kiefer Sutherland at the wrap party for Season 3 of 24, laughing his ass off over the inane subplot with Jack Bauer’s buxom daughter Kim, the mountain lion and Matt Dillon’s retarded brother. Or maybe he’s directly addressing viewer complaints over, say, the last three totally fucking identical seasons of the show, which were differentiated only by the amount of nukes it took to level various portions of this country. Either way, 2007 is apparently the year to pay tribute to the great American hero:

Exhibit A: Chicago instrumental stoner quartet Bongripper, who have selected an awesome moniker, an even more awesome album title (Hippie Killer), and an even more impossibly awesome pun title for the doom-y single: “Reefer Sutherland.”

Exhibit B: Occasional Mike Patton collaborators Dub Trio record a (comparatively) mellow song called “Jack Bauer” for their just-released record Cool Out and Coexist and spotlight it on their MySpace page.

The guy in the picture above looks like he probably enjoys Black Sabbath and punk-reggae fusion and owns one of these. We can totally see it.

This new Tim Armstrong (Rancid) solo album looks pretty black metal/d-beat.

It isn’t though.